Chapter – 17
You Will Continue to Need Me in the Future
“Imprint?”
Josephine blankly moved her lips and asked in return.
“What imprint?”
“The imprint of my curse.”
To that, Siegfried answered with utter shamelessness.
“You just said what you fed me was a curse.”
“That was only a part. Just the tail, not the head.”
Siegfried’s words were deeply meaningful.
Josephine recalled the burning sensation of the curse that had been churning her stomach since earlier. She felt like vomiting again.
“Then… that ‘head’ is still inside you?”
“Right. My curse has been continuing to grow within me.”
Siegfried said with an impassive face.
“So, I need someone to periodically purify its influence. I don’t have much time.”
“What on earth is this curse?”
“I told you earlier. The Curse of Vidar.”
It came up again. That demonic-sounding name for a curse.
To Josephine, who had lived her whole life as a believer of the Continental Orthodox Church, it sounded like the product of heresy.
“It’s an oath sworn before the God of Vengeance.”
Siegfried quickly added an explanation.
“In return, the contractor is granted one of the divine powers for vengeance, along with a fixed lifespan. The only thing that befalls those who break it is divine punishment.”
“Divine punishment?”
“Those who break the oath will inevitably, at some point, fall into madness and go insane. Then, they become monsters that know only vengeance, run amok harming everything around them, and meet their end.”
Siegfried stated flatly.
“In Norden, they call it ‘Vidar’s Divine Punishment.’ It constantly torments the cursed one, urging them not to forget the oath of vengeance.”
“Why?”
“So I don’t forget that I must live for vengeance until the day I die.”
Until the day I die. Josephine’s coral-colored irises widened and darted about.
“So you too… will eventually go mad and die like that?”
Siegfried didn’t answer, merely looking at her silently.
“If I don’t purify your curse with my divine power?”
“To be precise, unless you officially become the host for my curse, that will happen before long.”
He explained brazenly, without a hint of guilt.
“But it’s fine. You were born with divine power, so you’ll be able to withstand it easily.”
“And after that?”
“You will inherit one of the divine powers through my curse, just like I did, and I plan to extend my remaining life using your divine power as nourishment. A clean transaction.”
It sounded like there was no problem at all. Josephine fell silent for a moment.
“What if I refuse?”
“I’ll have to make it so you can’t refuse.”
Only then did Siegfried loosen his heavily sunken expression and grin.
“Or maybe I’ll just throw you back in prison before that happens.”
Even under Josephine’s threat, Siegfried’s beautiful face didn’t crumple in the slightest.
“Really?”
“Seems you forgot. You were just accused of attempting to poison the Emperor. I am the Empress.”
Josephine narrowed her eyes and glared at the man.
“Even if I lack real authority, it’s not like I can’t deal with one attempted regicide.”
Especially a prince abandoned by his own country. But Josephine hesitated to say even that in the moment.
Why? Even after being properly cornered by him, she still hesitated to hurt him.
“Me?”
Pfft. Siegfried finally let out a clear laugh.
“It wasn’t me who tried to kill Henrikus, it was you.”
At the unexpected answer, Josephine flinched.
“It was you who wanted revenge on Henrikus and that woman.”
Siegfried brought his glass-like nose bridge into Josephine’s field of vision.
“So you watched as I smeared poison on his glass, and you even put poison in Howzen’s tea yourself to save me.”
The clear malice in his transparent eyes, just as vivid, reminded Josephine of her sins once more.
“So how could I be the real culprit? Everything was done by you, because you wanted it.”
“That’s…”
It was true. But Josephine didn’t want to admit it right here and now.
“If you still found Henrikus that detestable, you should have just let me die.”
Siegfried smiled satisfactorily.
“But you didn’t. So you overlooked my crime, even abetted it. Isn’t that right?”
The man’s cruel words pierced her ears.
“You just didn’t get blood on your hands. You tried to use me. To kill Henrikus, and Howzen. Both of them.”
Yes, these eyes. This gaze. Everything happened because the malice contained in these eyes incited her.
Things turned out this way because this man was waiting for her to arrive at the banquet hall today.
And because he told her that Elisabeth was the real culprit, and that because of it, Henrikus would abandon her.
If not for him, she wouldn’t even have dreamed of wanting to live like this.
If not for him, her fate wouldn’t have changed like this.
“I saved you, and now you’re threatening me too.”
Josephine smiled wanly.
“So what.”
As she said this, there wasn’t even a hint of fear in Josephine’s eyes.
Did he think she would tremble in fear of death now? If so, he was gravely mistaken.
“Who do you think will believe your words now? Are you going to go tell Henrikus at this point?”
“Henrikus still cares for you terribly, so why would I bother.”
Siegfried pressed his forehead right against Josephine’s.
“But Howzen, that woman, would be different.”
His gentle voice resonated between their touching foreheads.
“If she learns everything about today’s events, she will absolutely never leave you alone in the future.”
The man’s soft voice winding around her ear stimulated Josephine’s wariness.
“Then I’ll ruin the quiet, peaceful life you dreamed of. All of it.”
Siegfried grinned as if he were perfectly capable of doing just that.
“I guarantee it, Empress. Even if I don’t, the day they atone to you will never come.”
Because he was pressing his forehead against hers, Josephine couldn’t even avert her gaze.
“Hah.”
Finally, Josephine let out a laugh that seemed to spurt blood.
She found it laughable, this arrogant man who thought such words could plant a desire to live in her.
“I really should have let you die.”
Even so, she didn’t exactly hate this man who was struggling so desperately.
It was simple curiosity. His words were gradually moving her shriveled heart.
So many people had tried desperately to kill her until now, but this man was trying desperately to keep her alive, wasn’t he?
And because of that, it remained unchanged that he was the one who had to cling to her.
She rather liked that point.
It felt as if he was the one in the position of begging her, please, to live.
“You can’t do that.”
But for someone in that position, this man was far too shameless and confident.
It was strange. Clearly, she was the one who could abandon and ignore him, yet when she was actually with him, it felt like the roles were reversed.
“Because you’ve already proven you can’t turn your back on me.”
In the end, his single sentence pierced Josephine’s sore spot and broke her down.
“……That’s right.”
Josephine felt a sharp, wrenching pain squeezing her heart.
He was right. Even in this state, she couldn’t turn her back on someone who had nearly died.
She had vowed never to do the foolish thing of living for others again. Yet she had acted foolishly again.
“And as long as they are alive, the day you find peace will never come.”
The man naturally pulled Josephine into an embrace.
Embracing even Josephine’s deep despair, who still couldn’t give up on being good.
“So live fiercely from now on too, Empress. I’ll help you.”
For the first time, Josephine didn’t resist.
Vengeance. Until just before this life, it had seemed like such a distant word.
But maybe not anymore. Now that fate has changed, perhaps now things can be different.
“What if I still don’t like it?”
Even so, Josephine wasn’t completely convinced.
Still, she didn’t push Siegfried away entirely.
She suddenly wondered what could possibly lie at the end of this life that someone was so desperately begging her to live.
“No.”
Siegfried declared firmly and decisively.
“You will continue to need my curse in the future. Without fail.”
That moment, Elise Palace.
“You don’t know when Siegfried will wake up? Are you sure?”
The palace’s mistress, Elisabeth, unconsciously gnawed on her well-manicured thumbnail as she asked someone.
To that, Elisabeth’s maid Olga answered.
“Yes, madam. Miss Huber, the Empress’s head maid who just visited, said so, so it must be certain.”
